World War One trigger: Murder of Franz Ferdinand and the gunshots that change history | WWI | News | Daily Express 01:52, Sat, Jun 28, 2014 Archduke Franz Ferdinand was worried about what would happen in Sarajevo[REX] Nineteen-year-old Gavrilo Princip wasn't expecting the royal convoy to pass his vantage point outside a delicatessen in Sarajevo's Franz Josef Strasse. After an unsuccessful bomb attack on the visiting Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by one of Princip's nationalist comrades less than an hour earlier, the young Bosnian Serb assumed the route would have been changed. He was right about that but nobody had thought to tell the driver. The man at the wheel only realised his mistake when a senior member of the party saw they were going the wrong way and told him to turn the open-topped car around. In doing so he stalled it, giving Princip the chance to shoot the 50-year-old heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne from just five feet away. The Archduke's wife also collapsed and at first it was assumed she had fainted. But she had been shot in the abdomen.

That double assassination, during a visit so obviously perilous that the Archduke had tried several times to cancel it, has gone down in history as the incident that triggered the First World War. In as much as Ferdinand is remembered personally, it is as a stolid and unpopular figure with jug ears and an ornate moustache, disliked and distrusted by his uncle, the elderly emperor, and famed for his volcanic temper, meanness with money and immense appetite for hunting (he shot 274,889 animals in his lifetime). The assassination took place three days before his 14th wedding anniversary and the treatment of the wife who died with him symbolised the stuffy out-datedness of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. A new book by royal historians Greg King and Sue Woolmans focuses on the sacrifices Ferdinand made to marry Sophie, who was treated as a pariah by the snobbish and anachronistic Habsburg court simply because she wasn't deemed royal enough. Born in Graz, Austria, in December 1863, Franz Ferdinand was the eldest son of Karl Ludwig, younger brother of the Emperor Franz Josef.

At the age of 12 he inherited the estates and fortune of the Archduke of Austria-Este, making him hugely wealthy. A greater change came in 1889 when his cousin, Crown Prince Rudolf, shot his mistress and himself in a suicide pact at the imperial hunting lodge at Mayerling in the Vienna woods. That made Ferdinand's father the heir to the throne. Seven years later Karl Ludwig drank polluted water from the River Jordan and died of typhoid, putting Ferdinand directly in line. Distrusting his nephew, the Emperor declined to make him a crown prince. The fiercely traditional Franz Josef's view of his heir was not improved when the Archduke announced his intention to marry a Bohemian aristocrat called Countess Sophie Chotek. Cosmopolitan, intelligent and vivacious, Sophie was related to the Habsburgs as well as to the Hohenzollern dynasty in Prussia and the princes of Liechtenstein. But her father had no inherited wealth and had to rely on his salary as an Austrian diplomat. Sophie went to work as a lady-in-waiting to Princess Isabella, a Habsburg grandee who wanted Ferdinand to marry her own daughter.

But when Sophie and Franz Ferdinand met at a ball in Prague in 1894 they fell in love. When the romance was discovered Sophie was unceremoniously sacked. The furious Isabella complained to the Emperor that Ferdinand had made fools of her family and humiliated her daughter simply to carry on a scandalous affair with her lady-in-waiting. FAMILY MAN: Ferdinand with Sophie and children Ernst, Sophie and Max [REX] I can and will never marry anyone else, for it repels me and I am unable to tie myself to another without love, making her and myself unhappy, while my heart belongs and will always belong to the Countess Ferdinand denied any misconduct but revealed he had already asked Sophie to marry him. Franz Josef gave his nephew a week to reconsider, saying: "Love makes people lose all sense of dignity." When the younger man insisted his mind was made up the Emperor pointed out that by law the Choteks were ineligible for marriage to the royal family. Therefore if Ferdinand wed Sophie it would be a morganatic union that would ban her from membership of the imperial house and bar any children from the succession.

A senior courtier warned Sophie's brother that his diplomatic career was at risk if the union went ahead and stories were spread in the press that Sophie was an adventuress who had set out to bewitch the Archduke and had already shared his bed. Most of the Habsburg family tried to talk Ferdinand out of the forbidden romance, with one of them telling him: "I don't fall in love with my lackeys." But he would not be put off. He wrote to his uncle: "I can and will never marry anyone else, for it repels me and I am unable to tie myself to another without love, making her and myself unhappy, while my heart belongs and will always belong to the Countess." Perhaps fearing another suicide in the imperial house, the Emperor announced he would permit the marriage provided Ferdinand swore an oath that he would never elevate Sophie's status or grant succession rights to their children. It was a humiliation but Ferdinand was ecstatic. "Your Franzi is simply crazy with joy," he wrote to his fiance. The wedding took place at a forbidding castle in Bohemia on July 1, 1900. The Emperor did not attend, nor did Ferdinand's sister and two brothers.

The couple moved into the dazzling Belvedere Palace in Vienna as well as a vast country estate near Prague which alone had 55 servants. But Sophie continued to be snubbed in royal circles. If she gave a dinner or reception the Habsburg archduchesses planned rival events on the same night which meant Sophie's guests were obliged to withdraw. She was not permitted to share her husband's box at the theatre or ballet nor even to ride in the same carriage as him in Vienna. "Don't let her think she's one of us," one archduchess warned. Attitudes eventually softened. Ferdinand and Sophie were received as a couple on royal visits to Romania, Germany and Britain - King George V was surprised how pleasant they were, contrary to their public reputations - and in 1909 Franz Josef gave Sophie the title Duchess of Hohenberg. In February 1914 at a court ball the Emperor even allowed her to sit beside him briefly. One writer noted that it was "a gesture both trivial and momentous".

By then Ferdinand had accepted an invitation to attend army manoeuvres near Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, which had been annexed six years earlier by Austria-Hungary but which neighbouring Serbia regarded as its own historic territory. Ominously the visit was to take place on St Vitus's Day, the national holiday on which every Serb vowed revenge against foreign intruders. A fortnight before their departure Ferdinand asked to be relieved of the trip, having expressed the fear that he would not return alive. But the Emperor's foreign policy was unbending and Franz Josef effectively commanded him to go. An artist’s impression of the assassination in Sarajevo [GETTY] Sophie was in no doubt that she must go too. "If there is danger, my place is so much more by my husband's side," she told a priest. She was as good as her word. "For heaven's sake, what has happened to you?" she screamed as Ferdinand was shot, before slumping in her seat and falling across her husband's lap, fatally wounded. The assassination gave the hawks in Vienna a pretext to invade Serbia, thereby also dragging Russia, Germany, Britain, France, Belgium and Italy into the bloodiest conflict the world had seen to date.

On that day in Bosnia the couple's three children, Sophie, Max and Ernst, became the first orphans of the First World War. Their estates in what became Czechoslovakia were eventually taken away from them after the collapse of the Habsburg dynasty. Settling in Austria, Max and Ernst were sent to Dachau when Hitler invaded in 1938. Max was released after six months but Ernst was moved to Sachsenhausen and not freed until near the end of the war. As for their great uncle, the Emperor Franz Josef, his first instinct was to blame their parents' defiance of marital tradition for their own murder. "Horrible!" he said after reading the telegram that brought the news. "The Almighty does not allow Himself to be challenged with impunity.

A higher power has restored the old order that I unfortunately was unable to uphold." • To order Assassination Of The Archduke by Greg King and Sue Woolmans (Pan Books, £9.99) call the Express Bookshop on 01872 562 310, send a cheque/postal order payable to The Express Bookshop, to Archduke Offer, PO Box 200, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 4WJ or order online at . UK delivery is free. Related articles The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand The Murder That Started World War I Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, 1914. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images) By Tarkan Rosenberg, Contributing Writer Updated July 30, 2016.

On the morning of June 28, 1914, a 19-year-old Bosnian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Sophie and Franz Ferdinand, the future heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary (the second-largest empire in Europe) in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. Gavrilo Princip, a simple postman’s son, probably didn’t realize at the time that by firing those three fateful shots, he was starting a chain reaction that would lead directly to the start of World War I . A Multinational Empire In the summer of 1914, the by now 47-year-old Austro-Hungarian Empire stretched from the Austrian Alps in the west to the Russian border in the east and reached far into the Balkans to the south ( map ). It was the second-largest European nation next to Russia and boasted a multi-ethnic population made up of at least ten different nationalities. These included Austrian Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Romanians, Italians, Croats and Bosnians among others. continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance But the empire was far from united.

Its various ethnic groups and nationalities were constantly competing for control in a state that was predominantly ruled by the Austrian-German Habsburg family and the Hungarian nationals—both of whom resisted sharing the majority of their power and influence with the rest of the empire’s diverse population. For many of those outside the German-Hungarian ruling class, the empire represented nothing more than an undemocratic, repressive regime occupying their traditional homelands. Nationalistic sentiments and struggles for autonomy often resulted in public riots and clashes with the ruling authorities such as in Vienna in 1905 and in Budapest in 1912. The Austro-Hungarians responded harshly to incidents of unrest, sending in troops to keep the peace and suspending local parliaments. Nevertheless, by 1914 unrest was a constant in almost every part of the realm. Franz Josef and Franz Ferdinand: A Tense Relationship By 1914, Emperor Franz Josef —a member of the long-standing royal House of Habsburg—had ruled Austria (called Austria-Hungary from 1867) for nearly 66 years.

As a monarch, Franz Josef was a staunch traditionalist and remained so well into the later years of his reign, despite the many great changes that had led to the weakening of monarchical power in other parts of Europe. He resisted all notions of political reform and viewed himself as the last of the old-school European monarchs. Emperor Franz Josef fathered two children. The first, however, died in infancy and the second committed suicide in 1889. By right of succession, the emperor’s nephew, Franz Ferdinand , became next in line to rule Austria-Hungary. The uncle and the nephew often clashed over differences in approach to ruling the vast empire. Franz Ferdinand had little patience for the ostentatious pomp of the ruling Habsburg class. Nor did he agree with his uncle’s harsh stance towards the rights and autonomy of the empire’s various national groups. He felt the old system, which allowed ethnic Germans and ethnic Hungarians to dominate, could not last. Franz Ferdinand believed the best way to regain the population’s loyalty was to make concessions towards the Slavs and other ethnicities by allowing them greater sovereignty and influence over the governance of the empire.

He envisioned the eventual emergence of a type of “United States of Greater Austria,” with the empire’s many nationalities sharing equally in its administration. He believed strongly that this was the only way to keep the empire together and to secure his own future as its ruler. The result of these disagreements was that the emperor had little love for his nephew and bristled at the thought of Franz Ferdinand’s future ascension to the throne. The tension between them grew even stronger when, in 1900, Franz Ferdinand took as his wife the Countess Sophie Chotek . Franz Josef did not consider Sophie to be an appropriate future empress as she was not directly descended from royal, imperial blood. Serbia: The "Great Hope" of the Slavs In 1914, Serbia was one of the few independent Slavic states in Europe, having gained its autonomy piecemeal throughout the previous century after hundreds of years of Ottoman rule. The majority of Serbs were staunch nationalists and the kingdom saw itself as the great hope for the sovereignty of Slavic peoples in the Balkans. The great dream of Serbian nationalists was the unification of Slavic peoples into a single sovereign state.

The Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires, however, were perpetually struggling for control and influence over the Balkans and Serbs felt under constant threat from their powerful neighbors. Austria-Hungary, in particular, posed a threat due to its close proximity to Serbia’s northern border. The situation was exasperated by the fact that pro-Austrian monarchs—with close ties to the Habsburgs—had ruled Serbia since the late 19th century . The last of these monarchs, King Alexander I, was deposed and executed in 1903 by a clandestine society comprised of nationalistic Serbian army officers known as the Black Hand . It was this same group that would come to help plan and support the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand eleven years later. Dragutin Dimitrijević and the Black Hand The aim of the Black Hand was the unification of all southern Slavic peoples into the single Slavic nation-state of Yugoslavia—with Serbia as its leading member— and to protect those Slavs and Serbs still living under Austro-Hungarian rule by any means necessary.

The group relished in the ethnic and nationalistic strife that had overtaken Austria-Hungary and sought to stoke the flames of its decline. Anything that was potentially bad for its powerful northern neighbor was seen as potentially good for Serbia. The high-ranking, Serbian, military positions of its founding members put the group in a unique position to carry out clandestine operations deep within Austria-Hungary itself. This included army colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, who would later become the head of Serbian military intelligence and leader of the Black Hand. The Black Hand frequently sent spies into Austria-Hungary to commit acts of sabotage or to foment discontent amongst Slavic peoples inside the empire. Their various anti-Austrian propaganda campaigns were designed, especially, to attract and recruit angry and restless Slavic youths with strong nationalistic sentiments. One of these youths—a Bosnian, and a member of the Black Hand-backed youth movement known as Young Bosnia—would personally carry out the murders of Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, and thus help to unleash the biggest crisis ever to face Europe and the world to that point.

Gavrilo Princip and Young Bosnia Gavrilo Princip was born and raised in the countryside of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which had been annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908 as a means to preempt Ottoman expansion into the region and to thwart Serbia’s aims for a greater Yugoslavia . Like many of the Slavic peoples living under Austro-Hungarian rule, Bosnians dreamed of the day when they would gain their independence and join a larger Slavic union alongside Serbia. Princip, a young nationalist, left for Serbia in 1912 to continue the studies he had undertaken in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. While there, he fell in with a group of fellow nationalist Bosnian youths calling themselves Young Bosnia. The young men in Young Bosnia would sit long hours together and discuss their ideas for bringing about change for Balkan Slavs. They agreed that violent, terroristic methods would help to bring about a speedy demise of the Habsburg rulers and ensure the eventual sovereignty of their native homeland.

When, in the spring of 1914, they learned of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s visit to Sarajevo that June, they decided he would be a perfect target for assassination. But they would need the help of a highly organized group like the Black Hand to pull off their plan. A Plan Is Hatched The Young Bosnians’ plan to do away with the archduke eventually reached the ears of Black Hand leader Dragutin Dimitrijević , the architect of the 1903 overthrow of Serbia’s king and by now chief of Serbian military intelligence. Dimitrijević had been made aware of Princip and his friends by a subordinate officer and fellow Black Hand member who had complained of being pestered by a group of Bosnian youths bent on killing Franz Ferdinand. By all accounts, Dimitrijević very casually agreed to help the young men; although secretly, he may have received Princip and his friends as a blessing. The official reason given for the archduke’s visit was to observe Austro-Hungarian military exercises outside the city, as the emperor had appointed him inspector general of the armed forces the previous year.

Dimitrijević, however, felt sure the visit was nothing more than a smokescreen for a coming Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia, though no evidence exists to suggest such an invasion was ever planned. Furthermore, Dimitrijević saw a golden opportunity to do away with a future ruler who could seriously undermine Slavic nationalistic interests, were he ever to be allowed to ascend to the throne. The Serbian nationalists knew well of Franz Ferdinand’s ideas for political reform and feared that any concessions made by Austria-Hungary towards the empire’s Slavic population could potentially undermine Serbian attempts at fomenting discontent and inciting Slavic nationalists to rise up against their Habsburg rulers. A plan was devised to send Princip, along with Young Bosnian members Nedjelko Čabrinović and Trifko Grabež, to Sarajevo, where they were to meet up with six other conspirators and carry out the assassination of the archduke. Dimitrijević, fearing the assassins’ inevitable capture and questioning, instructed the men to swallow cyanide capsules and commit suicide immediately after the attack. No one was to be allowed to learn who had authorized the murders.

Concerns Over Safety Initially, Franz Ferdinand never intended to visit Sarajevo itself; he was to keep himself outside the city for the task of observing military exercises. To this day it is unclear why he chose to visit the city, which was a hotbed of Bosnian nationalism and thus a very hostile environment for any visiting Habsburg. One account suggests that Bosnia’s governor-general, Oskar Potiorek—who may have been seeking a political boost at Franz Ferdinand’s expense— urged the archduke to pay the city an official, all day visit. Many in the archduke’s entourage, however, protested out of fear for the archduke’s safety. What Bardolff and the rest of the archduke’s entourage did not know was that June 28 was a Serb national holiday— a day that represented Serbia’s historical struggle against foreign invaders. After much debate and negotiation, the archduke finally bent to Potiorek’s wishes and agreed to visit the city on June 28, 1914, but only in an unofficial capacity and for only a few hours in the morning. Getting Into Position Gavrilo Princip and his co-conspirators arrived in Bosnia sometime in early June.

They had been ushered across the border from Serbia by a network of Black Hand operatives, who provided them with faked documents stating the three men were customs officials and thus entitled to free passage. Once inside Bosnia, they met up with six other conspirators and made their way toward Sarajevo, arriving in the city sometime around June 25. There they stayed in various hostels and even lodged with family to await archduke’s visit three days later. Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, arrived in Sarajevo sometime before ten in the morning of June 28. After a short welcoming ceremony at the train station, the couple was ushered into a 1910 Gräf & Stift touring car and, along with a small procession of other cars carrying members of their entourage, made their way to the Town Hall for an official reception. It was a sunny day and the car’s canvas top had been taken down to allow for the crowds to better see the visitors. A map of the archduke’s route had been published in the newspapers prior to his visit, so spectators would know where to stand in order to catch a glimpse of the couple as they rode by.

The procession was to move down the Appel Quay along the northern bank of the Miljacka River. Princip and his six co-conspirators had also obtained the route from the newspapers. That morning, after receiving their weapons and their instructions from a local Black Hand operative, they split up and positioned themselves at strategic points along the riverbank. Muhamed Mehmedbašić and Nedeljko Čabrinović mingled with the crowds and positioned themselves near the Cumurja Bridge where they would be the first of the conspirators to see the procession going by. Vaso Čubrilović and Cvjetko Popović positioned themselves further up the Appel Quay. Gavrilo Princip and Trifko Grabež stood near the Lateiner Bridge toward the center of the route while Danilo Ilić moved about trying to find a good position. A Tossed Bomb Mehmedbašić would be the first to see the car appear; however, as it approached, he froze with fear and was unable to take action. Čabrinović, on the other hand, acted without hesitation.

He pulled a bomb from his pocket, struck the detonator against a lamp post, and tossed it at the archduke’s car. The car’s driver, Leopold Loyka, noticed the object flying towards them and hit the accelerator. The bomb landed behind the car where it exploded, causing debris to fly and nearby shop windows to shatter. About 20 onlookers were injured. The archduke and his wife were safe, however, save for a small scratch on Sophie’s neck caused by flying debris from the explosion. Immediately after throwing the bomb, Čabrinović swallowed his vial of cyanide and jumped over a railing down into the riverbed. The cyanide, however, failed to work and Čabrinović was caught by a group of policemen and dragged away. The Appel Quay had erupted into chaos by now and the archduke had ordered the driver to stop so that the injured parties could be attended to. Once satisfied that nobody was seriously injured, he ordered the procession to continue to the Town Hall.

The other conspirators along the route had by now received news of Čabrinović’s failed attempt and most of them, probably out of fear, decided to leave the scene. Princip and Grabež, however, remained. The procession continued on to the Town Hall, where Sarajevo’s mayor launched into his welcoming speech as if nothing had happened. The archduke immediately interrupted and admonished him, outraged at the bombing attempt that had put him and his wife in such danger and questioned the apparent lapse in security. The archduke’s wife, Sophie, gently urged her husband to calm down. The mayor was allowed to continue his speech in what was later described by witnesses as a bizarre and otherworldly spectacle. Despite reassurances from Potiorek that the danger had passed, the archduke insisted on abandoning the day’s remaining schedule; he wanted to visit the hospital to check on the wounded. Some discussion on the safest way to proceed to the hospital ensued and it was decided that quickest way would be to go by the same route. The Assassination Franz Ferdinand’s car sped down the Appel Quay, where the crowds had thinned out by now.

The driver, Leopold Loyka, seemed to have been unaware of the change of plans. He turned left at the Lateiner Bridge toward Franz Josef Strasse as if to proceed to the National Museum, which the Archduke had planned to visit next prior to the assassination attempt. The car drove past a delicatessen where Gavrilo Princip had bought a sandwich. He had resigned himself to the fact that the plot was a failure and that the archduke’s return route would have been altered by now. Somebody yelled out to the driver that he had made a mistake and should have kept going along the Appel Quay to the hospital. Loyka stopped the vehicle and attempted to reverse as Princip emerged from the delicatessen and noticed, to his great surprise, the archduke and his wife only a few feet from him. He pulled out his pistol and fired. Witnesses would later say they heard three shots. Princip was immediately seized and beaten by bystanders and the gun wrested from his hand. He managed to swallow his cyanide before being tackled to the ground but it, too, failed to work.

Count Franz Harrach, the owner of the Gräf & Stift car that was carrying the royal couple, heard Sophie cry out to her husband, “What has happened to you?” before she appeared to faint and slump over in her seat.1 Harrach then noticed that blood was trickling from the archduke’s mouth and ordered the driver to drive to the Hotel Konak—where the royal couple was supposed to stay during their visit—as quickly as possible. The archduke was still alive but barely audible as he continually muttered, “It is nothing.” Sophie had completely lost consciousness. The archduke, too, eventually fell silent. The Couple’s Wounds Upon arriving at the Konak, the Archduke and his wife were carried up to their suite and attended to by regimental surgeon Eduard Bayer. The archduke’s coat was removed to reveal a wound in his neck just above the collarbone. Blood was gurgling from his mouth. After a few moments it was determined that Franz Ferdinand had died from his wound. “His Highness’s suffering is over,” the surgeon announced.2 Sophie had been laid out on a bed in the next room.

Everyone still assumed she had simply fainted but when her mistress removed her clothes she discovered blood and a bullet wound in her lower right abdomen. She had already been dead by the time they had reached the Konak. Aftermath The assassination sent shockwaves throughout Europe. Austro-Hungarian officials discovered the Serbian roots of the plot and declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914 -- exactly one month after the assassination. Fearing reprisals from Russia, which had been a strong ally of Serbia, Austria-Hungary now sought to activate its alliance with Germany in an attempt to scare the Russians out of taking action. Germany, in turn, sent Russia an ultimatum to stop mobilizing, which Russia ignored. The two powers—Russia and Germany—declared war on each other on August 1, 1914. Britain and France would soon enter the conflict on the side of Russia. Old alliances, which had been dormant since the 19th century, had suddenly created a dangerous situation across the continent. The war that ensued, World War I , would last four years and claim the lives of millions. Gavrilo Princip never lived to see the end of the conflict he helped to unleash.

After a lengthy trial, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison (he avoided the death penalty due to his young age). While in prison, he contracted tuberculosis and died there on April 28, 1918. 1 Greg King and Sue Woolmans, The Assassination of the Archduke (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2013), 207. 2 King and Woolmans, 208-209. First World War.com - Who's Who - Archduke Franz Ferdinand What's New Who's Who - Archduke Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) was born in Graz, Austria. As the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire his assassination on 28 June 1914 sparked the First World War. Sponsored Links Although only third in line to the throne, Franz Ferdinand became the heir-apparent following the death of the Emperor's son, Crown Prince Rudolf in 1889, and his own father Archduke Charles Louis in 1896, Franz Josef's brother.

Considered a prideful and mistrusting man, and not overly cultured, and with a short temper, Franz Ferdinand lacked the necessary charisma to guarantee popularity. Following his marriage to Sophie Chotek von Chotkova in 1900, Ferdinand became more reclusive. A happy husband and a devoted father (they had three children), Ferdinand's private persona in this regard was at odds with public perception. The Emperor, Franz Josef, was against the marriage, arguing that Franz Ferdinand was marrying beneath his station. The marriage eventually only took place after Ferdinand agreed to renounce all rights of succession for his children. Franz Josef did not attend the wedding. The primary source of Franz Ferdinand's unpopularity however related to the policies he intended to apply once he assumed the throne. He proposed to replace Austro-Hungarian dualism with 'Trialism,' a triple monarchy in which the empire's Slavs would have an equal voice in government with the Germans and Magyars. Ferdinand was also considering the idea of a federalism made up of 16 states; the aim being to avoid disintegration of the fading Austro-Hungarian empire. However these ideas were not popular among the ruling elite.

As Inspector General of the army Franz Ferdinand accepted an invitation from General Oskar Potiorek to visit the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo, to inspect army manoeuvres. Bosnia - and Herzegovina - were provinces that had been under Austro-Hungarian administration since 1878, by international agreement. Austria annexed the provinces outright in 1908, a controversial move which upset governments in the west; however, Greater-Serbia proponents were outraged. They wanted the provinces to be part of a Serbian led pan-Slav state, rather than part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. A Serbian terrorist group, the Black Hand, resolved to assassinate Franz Ferdinand during his visit to Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, thereby stalling his proposed reforms. While riding in the motorcade through the streets of Sarajevo on 28 June, Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot and killed by Gavrilo Princip , a Bosnian member of the Black Hand; earlier in the day Ferdinand's car had also been fired at by a hand grenade , causing him to complain angrily upon his arrival at the city hall. "What is the good of your speeches?

I come to Sarajevo on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me. It is outrageous!" Archduke Franz Ferdinand interrupting the Mayor's welcome speech at Sarajevo's city hall, 28 June 1914. The assassination provided Austria-Hungary with an excuse to take action against Serbia. During July 1914 the situation escalated, pulling in the major European powers via the complex alliance relationships each had struck up with one another. The result was world war. Franz Ferdinand was buried in a crypt beneath the chapel of his castle, Artstetten, instead of the customary burial place of the Hapsburgs, Capuchin Crypt, in Vienna. Neither Franz Josef nor the German Kaiser attended the funeral. Click here to view film footage of Archduke Franz Ferdinand arriving at Sarajevo's Town Hall on 28 June 1914. Click here to view footage of Ferdinand's funeral. Sponsored Links Saturday, 22 August, 2009 Michael Duffy "Boche" was a disparaging term used to describe anything German. - Did you know?

World War I for Kids: Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand World War I Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand The assassination of Austria's Archduke Ferdinand set into motion a series of international events that led to World War I. This one event is widely considered the most important event in leading up to war. Gavrilo Princip killing Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo by Achille Beltrame The Archduke and his wife were shot while riding in their car Who was Archduke Ferdinand? Archduke Franz Ferdinand was born in the city of Graz on December 18, 1863. After his cousin and father died, he became the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His uncle, Franz Joseph, was the current emperor of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. He was married to Sophie, the Duchess of Hohenberg. Leading up to the Assassination In the southern portion of Austria-Hungary was a region called Bosnia. Many of the Bosnians wanted to have their own country and not be under the rule of Austria-Hungary. The country of Serbia, just south of the Austria-Hungary border also wanted the freedom of the Bosnians.

Serbia was an ally with the powerful Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary was allied with Germany. When Archduke Ferdinand announced his trip to Sarajevo, Bosnian nationalists (people who wanted Bosnia to be its own country) saw their opportunity to strike at the Austrian Empire. With help from the neighboring country of Serbia , assassins were recruited and trained to kill the Archduke as he traveled through the streets of Sarajevo. These assassins were members of a terrorist group called the Black Hand. The Assassination On June 28, 1914 Franz Ferdinand and his wife were in the third car of a motorcade traveling through Sarajevo to the Town Hall. The Black Hand had several assassins positioned along the route. On the way to the Town Hall, the first assassination attempt occurred. A man named Nedeljko Cabrinovic threw a bomb into the car with the Archduke. However, the bombed bounced off the car and landed under the next car in the motorcade. The car with the Archduke was able to speed away and make it safely to the Town Hall. The assassins did not give up, however. On the return trip, the motorcade took a wrong turn.

When the driver began to back up, another assassin named Gavrilo Princip happened to be right next to the car. He took advantage of this opportunity and began firing at the Archduke. He fired twice, hitting the Archduke once and his wife Sophie. The crowd jumped on Princip and he was arrested by the police. At the same time the car sped to the Governor's residence to get medical help. Unfortunately, Sofie was dead before they arrived and the Archduke died a few minutes later. Results and Why it Started WW1 The Austria-Hungary government saw the assassination as a direct attack on the country. They believed that the Serbians had helped the Bosnian terrorists in the attack. They made harsh demands on the Serbians which the Serbians rejected. At the same time, Russia began to mobilize their army to help protect Serbia. When Serbia rejected the demands, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. A few days later, Germany declared war on Russia to help its ally Austria-Hungary. Then France began to mobilize to help its ally Russia, and Germany followed by declaring war on France. World War I had begun.

Interesting Facts about the Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand When Ferdinand saw that his wife was shot he exclaimed "Sophie! Don't die! Stay alive for the children!" Both Princip and Cabrinovic tried to kill themselves with cyanide pills, but the pills only made them very sick. Between the bomb and the shooting, Ferdinand attended a ceremony given by the Major of Sarajevo at City Hall. The Serbian Prime Minister learned of the assassination attempt prior to the attack. He tried to warn the Austrians, but his warning was so vague that the Austrians did not understand how real the threat was. Activities Take a ten question quiz about this page. Learn More about World War I: Overview: World War One - Assassination of Franz Ferdinand | HistoryOnTheNet World War One World War One - Assassination of Franz Ferdinand Last Updated: 08/05/2014 - 07:15 28th June 1914 Franz Ferdinand, aged 51, was heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire . He was married to Sophie Chotek von Chotvoka and had three children.

Franz Ferdinand was, however, very unpopular because he had made it clear that once he became Emperor he would make changes. The map below, of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914, shows that Bosnia/ Herzegovnia was controlled by Austria. Austria had annexed Bosnia in 1908, a move that was not popular with the Bosnian people. Franz Ferdinand decided to visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovnia, to make an inspection of the Austro-Hungarian troops there. The inspection was scheduled for 28th June 1914. It was planned that Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie would be met at the station and taken by car to the City Hall where they would have lunch before going to inspect the troops. A Serbian terrorist group, called The Black Hand , had decided that the Archduke should be assassinated and the planned visit provided the ideal opportunity. Seven young men who had been trained in bomb throwing and marksmanship were stationed along the route that Franz Ferdinand's car would follow from the City Hall to the inspection. The first two terrorists were unable to throw their grenades because the streets were too crowded and the car was travelling quite fast.

The third terrorist, a young man called Cabrinovic, threw a grenade which exploded under the car following that of the Archduke. Although the Archduke and his wife were unhurt, some of his attendants were injured and had to be taken to hospital. After lunch at the City Hall, Franz Ferdinand insisted on visiting the injured attendants in hospital. However, on the way to the hospital the driver took a wrong turn. Realising his mistake he stopped the car and began to reverse. Another terrorist, named Gavrilo Princip, stepped forward and fired two shots. The first hit the pregnant Sophia in the stomach, she died almost instantly. The second shot hit the Archduke in the neck. He died a short while later. Drawing of the arrest of Gavrilo Princip Gavrilo Princip was arrested but was not executed because he was under 20 years. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison where he died of TB in 1918.

Archduke Ferdinand assassinated - Jun 28, 1914 - HISTORY.com Archduke Ferdinand assassinated Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I by early August. On June 28, 1919, five years to the day after Franz Ferdinand’s death, Germany and the Allied Powers signed the Treaty of Versailles, officially marking the end of World War I. The archduke traveled to Sarajevo in June 1914 to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. The annexation had angered Serbian nationalists, who believed the territories should be part of Serbia.

A group of young nationalists hatched a plot to kill the archduke during his visit to Sarajevo, and after some missteps, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip was able to shoot the royal couple at point-blank range, while they traveled in their official procession, killing both almost instantly. The assassination set off a rapid chain of events, as Austria-Hungary immediately blamed the Serbian government for the attack. As large and powerful Russia supported Serbia, Austria asked for assurances that Germany would step in on its side against Russia and its allies, including France and possibly Great Britain. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the fragile peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed, beginning the devastating conflict now known as the First World War. After more than four years of bloodshed, the Great War ended on November 11, 1918, after Germany, the last of the Central Powers, surrendered to the Allies. At the peace conference in Paris in 1919, Allied leaders would state their desire to build a post-war world that was safe from future wars of such enormous scale.

The Versailles Treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, tragically failed to achieve this objective. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s grand dreams of an international peace-keeping organization faltered when put into practice as the League of Nations. Even worse, the harsh terms imposed on Germany, the war’s biggest loser, led to widespread resentment of the treaty and its authors in that country–a resentment that would culminate in the outbreak of the Second World War two decades later. Related Videos Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated - Jun 28, 1914 - HISTORY.com Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated Publisher A+E Networks In an event that is widely acknowledged to have sparked the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is shot to death along with his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on this day in 1914.

The great Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck, the man most responsible for the unification of Germany in 1871, was quoted as saying at the end of his life that “One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.” It went as he predicted. The archduke traveled to Sarajevo in June 1914 to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Ottoman territories in the turbulent Balkan region that were annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908 to the indignation of Serbian nationalists, who believed they should become part of the newly independent and ambitious Serbian nation. The date scheduled for his visit, June 28, coincided with the anniversary of the First Battle of Kosovo in 1389, in which medieval Serbia was defeated by the Turks. Despite the fact that Serbia did not truly lose its independence until the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448, June 28 was a day of great significance to Serbian nationalists, and one on which they could be expected to take exception to a demonstration of Austrian imperial strength in Bosnia. June 28 was also Franz Ferdinand’s wedding anniversary.

His beloved wife, Sophie, a former lady-in-waiting, was denied royal status in Austria due to her birth as a poor Czech aristocrat, as were the couple’s children. In Bosnia, however, due to its limbo status as an annexed territory, Sophie could appear beside him at official proceedings. On June 28, 1914, then, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were touring Sarajevo in an open car, with surprisingly little security, when Serbian nationalist Nedjelko Cabrinovic threw a bomb at their car; it rolled off the back of the vehicle and wounded an officer and some bystanders. Later that day, on the way to visit the injured officer, the archduke’s procession took a wrong turn at the junction of Appel quay and Franzjosefstrasse, where one of Cabrinovic’s cohorts, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, happened to be loitering. Seeing his opportunity, Princip fired into the car, shooting Franz Ferdinand and Sophie at point-blank range. Princip then turned the gun on himself, but was prevented from shooting it by a bystander who threw himself upon the young assassin.

A mob of angry onlookers attacked Princip, who fought back and was subsequently wrestled away by the police. Meanwhile, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie lay fatally wounded in their limousine as it rushed to seek help; they both died within the hour. The assassination of Franz-Ferdinand and Sophie set off a rapid chain of events: Austria-Hungary, like many in countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Slav nationalism once and for all. As Russia supported Serbia, an Austro-Hungarian declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention–which would likely involve Russia’s ally, France, and possibly Britain as well. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed. Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.

Related Videos The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the drumbeats of war - The Washington Post The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the drumbeats of war The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! By Ishaan Tharoor June 28, 2014 Follow @ishaantharoor Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie leave Sarajevo City Hall on June 28, 1914, where they attended a reception shortly before their assassination. REUTERS/JU Muzej Sarajevo (JU Sarajevo Museum)/Handout via Reuters One hundred years ago today in Sarajevo, a Serb nationalist shot to death at point-blank range the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie.

Their deaths, we are told, triggered the chain of events that led a month later to the start of World War I -- the Great War, a horrifying, bloody four-year conflict that killed some 14 million people, collapsed empires and redrew large parts of the world's map. In Sarajevo, the assassination is being marked with commemorations, concerts and exhibitions. The fault lines of a century ago remain all too real, with the country's ethnically divided politics still a cauldron of animosities. "Sarajevo is now a symbol of a century of wars in Europe but we are here to talk about peace and reconciliation," said Joseph Zimet, the head of the organization planning the commemoration. On the eve of the centennial, Bosnian Serbs unveiled a statue to Gavrilo Princip, the archduke's killer, who is considered a Serbian hero and freedom-fighter. A century after the assassination, the rest of the world would likely consider him -- and the underground, radical nationalist network he was operating within -- a state-sponsored terrorist. The Austrians back then certainly did, and looked at Belgrade, capital of the young nation of Serbia, as the source of the conspiracy.

What happened next, as Winston Churchill put it , was a "drama never surpassed." Ferdinand's death presented leading statesmen in Europe's great powers both a crisis and an opportunity and led to a dizzying series of diplomatic maneuvers, secret negotiations and political escalations that underlay the explosive opening of World War I. A web of alliances between Europe's competing empires -- a " concert " -- led to Russia coming in on the side of the Serbs, Germany countering Russia, and Britain, France and the waning Ottoman Empire also entering the fray. Sean McMeekin, a professor at Koc University in Istanbul, chronicles the weeks that followed Ferdinand's murder in " July 1914 ," a riveting account published this year of how the war started. McMeekin and a whole tradition of World War I historians argue that even after Ferdinand's assassination, war was not a fait accompli. Indeed, in Europe and across the pond in the United States, many learning of the archduke's death were less concerned with the drumbeats of war than the question of Austrian succession.

The Washington Post, for example, published this largely fluffy piece on the royal who became the heir presumptive: As we mark the war's centennial, there will be time yet to explore its legacy and effects. What McMeekin and other historians emphasize, though, was that the war was the creation of a coterie of political elites, each fueled by their own lust for greater power. No one was guiltless in the build-up. This year, in Britain, there's already been an animated debate about how to remember World War I. Conservative Education Secretary Michael Gove lambasted "leftist" historians and commentators who cast it as a "misbegotten shambles," a series of catastrophic mistakes by mustachioed monarchs and cabinet ministers. Instead, Gove argued it was a "just war" against the "ruthless Social Darwinism" of the Germans. This is a view not shared by many. Germany was punished most in the war's aftermath, with its Kaiser Wilhelm II -- an ambitious expansionist -- made out to be the chief villain.

But they were hardly alone in their imperial delusions, with the French, the British and most importantly the Russians -- whose Czarist leadership still harbored plans to conquer Istanbul, that ancient Rome of the east -- all guilty of fanning the flames. But it's curious to imagine what would have happened had the archduke survived the assassination. A relative liberal, he had "an almost religious aversion to the idea of war with Serbia," writes McMeekin, no matter his contempt for the Serbs. But there were always larger forces in play. An imperialistic arms race in Europe had been building up in the years before. Ethnic nationalism in the margins of fraying empires asked difficult questions of the delicate "concert" of power that was in place on the continent. A reckoning, many argue , was inevitable. world Sarajevo, June 28, 1914 Sarajevo, June 28, 1914 The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Micheal Shackelford Note on Slavic spelling: Due to the current limitations of HTML, certain Slavic characters can not be reproduced.

I have chosen to use the same letters, but without the diacritical marks, rather than translitterating. Cabrinovic, for instance, will be spelled as is, and not rendered as Chabrinovitj, or Chabrinovitch. Accurate orthography accompanies the map shown below Background Events Leading Up to Murder Bosnia and Herzegovina were provinces just south of Austria which had, until 1878, been governed by the Turks. The Treaty of Berlin (1878) settled the disposition of lands lost by the Turks following their disastrous war with Russia. Austria was granted the power to administer the two provinces indefinitely. Bosnia was populated primarily by three groups -- Croats (Roman Catholic), ethnic Serbs (Serb-Orthodox) and Muslims (left from the days of Turkish rule). There is no ethnic group: Bosnians. Many Bosnian-Serbs felt a strong nationalistic desire to have their province joined with that of their Serb brothers across the river in Serbia. Many in Serbia openly shared that desire. The Annexation On October 6, 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina directly into the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The reasons were complex. Annexation would remove any hopes Turkey might have for reclaiming the provinces. Full inclusion into the empire would give Bosnians full rights and privileges. It may have been an act of will by the Austrians, just to show that they were still an active, sovereign power. For whatever reason, the annexation caused quite a stir in Europe. The move was not exactly legal. Russia, particularly, was upset, even though the Russians had earlier given their consent to the annexation. (Austria was supposed to help Russia in the Dardanelles first) After Austria payed Turkey a cash settlement, most of Europe calmed down. The Serbs, however, did not. They coveted the provinces for their own Serb empire. The Black Hand A secret society called Ujedinjenje ili Smrt, ('Union or Death') was founded in Belgrade, an outgrowth of an older Serb nationalist group: Narodna Odbrana . The Black Hand took over the older group's work of anti-Austrian propaganda within Serbia, sabotage, espionage and political murders abroad -- especially in provinces Serbia wished to annex. The group included many government officials, professionals and army officers.

When it was learned that the Heir-Apparent to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand, was scheduled to visit Sarajevo in June of 1914, the Black Hand decided to assassinate him. Three young Bosnians were recruited, trained and equipped: Gavrilo Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic and Trifko Grabez. The Serbian Government Because of its many government and army members, the Black Hand's activities were fairly well known to the Serbian government. When Prime Minister Pasic learned of the assassination plot, he had a difficult problem on his hands. If he did nothing, and the plot succeeded the Black Hand's involvement would surely come to light. The tangled connections between the Black Hand and the Serbian government would put Serbia in a very bad position. It could even bring on war with Austria. Should he warn the Austrians of the plot, he would be seen as a traitor by his countrymen. He would also be admitting to deeper knowledge of anti-Austrian actions in Serbia. A weak attempt was made to intercept the assassins at the border. When that failed, Pasic decided that he would try to warn the Austrians in carefully vague diplomatic ways that would not expose the Black Hand.

The Warning The Serbian Minister to Vienna, Jovan Jovanovic, was given the task of warning the Austrians. Because of his extremist, pan-Serb views, Jovanovich was not well received in Austrian Foreign Ministry offices. He did, however, get along better with the Minister of Finance, Dr. Leon von Bilinski. On June 5, Jovanovic told Bilinski, that it might be good and reasonable if Franz Ferdinand were to not go to Sarajevo. "Some young Serb might put a live rather than a blank cartridge in his gun and fire it." Bilinski, unaccustomed to subtle diplomatic innuendo, completely missed the warning. "Let us hope nothing does happen" he responded good humoredly. Jovanovic strongly suspected that Bilinski did not understand, but made no further effort to convey the warning. Preparations The three Black Hand trainees secretly made their way back to Sarajevo roughly a month before Franz Ferdinand. A fourth man, Danilo Ilic, had joined the group and on his own initiative, recruited three others. Vaso Cubrilovic and Cvijetko Popovic were 17 year old high school students.

Muhamed Mehmedbasic, a Bosnian muslim, was added to give the group a less pan-Serb appearance. Four Serbian army pistols and six bombs were were supplied from Serbian army arsenals. The Visit Franz Ferdinand accepted the invitation of Bosnia's governor, General Oskar Potoirek, to inspect the army manoeuvres being held outside Sarajevo. The Archduke's role as Inspector General of the Army made the visit logical. It had also been four years since a prominent Hapsburg had made a goodwill visit to Bosnia. The visit would also roughly coincide with his 14th wedding anniversary. While his wife Sophie, not being of royal blood, was not permitted to ride in the same car as her royal husband back in Vienna, such taboos did not apply to provincial cities like Sarajevo. During the visit, Sophie would be able to ride beside her husband -- a thoughtful anniversary gift. Security during the visit was not tight. Franz Ferdinand was a brave man and disliked the presence of secret service men. Nor did he like the idea of a cordon soldiers between the crowd and himself. For the most part, Franz Ferdinand was welcomed warmly by the Bosnians.

Sarajevo was not seen as hostile territory. Arrangements were not based on the assumption that the streets were lined with assassins. As it was, only Sarajevo's hundred and twenty policemen were at work. June 28, 1914 At around 10:00 a.m., the archducal party left Philipovic army camp, where Franz Ferdinand had performed a brief review of the troops. The motorcade, consisting of six automobiles was headed for City Hall for a reception hosted by Sarajevo's mayor. The chosen route was the wide avenue called Appel Quay, which followed the north bank of the River Miljacka. In the first automobile rode the Mayor, Fehim Effendi Curcic, and the city's Commissioner of Police, Dr. Gerde. In the second automobile, its top folded down and flying the Hapsburg pennant, rode Franz Ferdinand, Sophie and General Potoirek. The driver and the car's owner, Count Harrach, rode in front.

The third automobile in the procession carried the head Franz Ferdinand's military chancellery; Sophie's lady in waiting; Potoirek's chief adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Merizzi; the car's owner and his driver. The fourth and fifth automobiles carried other members of Franz Ferdinand's staff and assorted Bosnian officials. The sixth automobile was empty -- a spare should one of the others fail. The morning was sunny and warm. Many of the houses and buildings lining the route were decorated with flags and flowers. Crowds lined the Appel Quay to cheer the imperial couple. Amid the festive crowd mingled seven young assassins. They took up their assigned positions, all but one along the river side of the Appel Quay. First in line was Mehmedbasic, to the west of the Cumurja Bridge. Near him was Cabrinovic. The others were strung out as far back as the Kaiser Bridge. The Bomb The motorcade approached and the crowds began to cheer. As Franz Ferdinand's car passed Mehmedbasic, he did nothing. The next man in line, Cabrinovic, had more resolve.

He took the bomb from his coat pocket, struck the bomb's percussion cap against a lamp post, took aim and threw the bomb directly at Franz Ferdinand. In the short time it took the bomb to sail through the air, many small events took place. The car's owner, Count Harrach, hearing the bomb being struck against the lamp post, thought they had suffered a flat tire. "Bravo. Now we'll have to stop." The driver, who must have seen the black object flying, did just the opposite -- he stepped on the accelerator. As a result, the bomb would not land where intended. Franz Ferdinand, also catching a glimpse of the hurtling package, raised his arm to deflect it away from Sophie. She sat to his right, and so was between Franz Ferdinand and Cabrinovic. The bomb glanced off Franz Ferdinand's arm, bounced off the folded car top and into the street behind them. The explosion injured about a dozen spectators. The third car was hit with fragments and stalled. Merizzi received a bad cut to the back of the head. Others in the party received minor cuts. The first and second cars continued on for a few moments then stopped while everyone assessed who was injured and who was not.

After the Bomb Cabrinovic swallowed his cyanide and jumped into the river. The trouble was, the poison was old -- it only made him vomit -- and the river was only a few inches deep. He was quickly seized by the crowd and arrested. The motorcade continued on to City Hall, passing the other assassins. Either because they thought Cabrinovic had succeeded or from lack of resolve, they failed to act. At City Hall, a furious Franz Ferdinand confronted the Mayor. "Mr. Mayor, one comes here for a visit and is received by bombs! It is outrageous!" After a pause to calm himself, he regained his composure and let the Mayor speak. The Mayor, either completely unaware of what had happened, or personally ill equiped for crises, launched into his prepared speech. "Your Royal and Imperial Highness!...Our hearts are full of happiness..." By the end of the Mayor's speech, Franz Ferdinand had regained his composure and thanked his host for his cordial welcome. Activities at City Hall were observed as planned. Changed Plans Discussions were held as to whether to change the rest of Franz Ferdinand's schedule.

The Archduke did not wish to cancel his visit to the museum and lunch at the Governor's residence, but wished to alter his plans to include a visit to Merizzi in the hospital. The same motorcade set out along the Appel Quay, but neither the Mayor's driver, nor Franz Ferdinand's driver had been informed of the change in schedule. This would have been Merizzi's job. The young assassins had counted on succeeding on the first attempt. With no assurance that Franz Ferdinand would follow his original itinerary, the remaining assassins took up various other positions along the Appel Quay. Gavrilo Princip crossed the Appel Quay and strolled down Franz Joseph Street. He stepped into Moritz Schiller's food store to get a sandwich. As he emerged, he met a friend who inquired about a mutual friend. The Wrong Turn The Mayor's car, followed by Franz Ferdinand's car turned off the Appel Quay and onto Franz Joseph Street, as originally planned, to travel to the museum. General Potoirek leaned forward. "What is this? This is the wrong way! We're supposed to take the Appel Quay!" The driver put on the brakes and began to back up.

Franz Ferdinand's car stopped directly in front of Schiller's store -- five feet away from Princip. The Shots Princip was quick to recognize what had happened. He pulled the pistol from his pocket, took a step towards the car and fired twice. General Potoirek happened to look directly at Princip as he fired. He thought the gun's report unusually soft. Both Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were still sitting upright. Potoirek thought the shots had missed, but given the assult, ordered the driver to drive directly to the Governor's residence. Arrest Princip then turned the gun on himself, but was mobbed by the crowd. Police had to rescue Princip from the crowd before they could arrest him. Princip had swallowed his poison, but it was from the same batch as Cabrinovic's. He was violently ill, but did not die. Mortal Wounds As the car sped across the Lateiner Bridge, a stream of blood shot from Franz Ferdinand's mouth. He had been shot in the neck. Sophie, seeing this, exclaimed: "For Heaven's sake! What happened to you?" She sank from her seat. Potoirek and Harrach thought whe had fainted and were trying to help her up.

Franz Ferdinand, knowing his wife better, suspected the truth. Sophie had been shot in the abdomen and was bleeding internally. "Sopherl! Sopherl! " he pleaded. "Sterbe nicht! Bleibe am Leben für unsere Kinder! " (Sophie dear! Sophie dear! Don't die! Stay alive for our children!) The cars rushed to the Governor's residence. Sophie may have died before they arrived. Franz Ferdinand died shortly afterward. The July Crisis The murders of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie brought Austro-Serbian tensions to a head. Serbia had been fomenting trouble for Austria for many years. For many in Vienna, the double murders provided the 'last straw' for a get-tough showdown. The trail back to the Black Hand would not be unraveled for years to come. Vienna felt she could not wait for conclusive proof and acted based on the mass of circumstantial evidence. As Vienna took a hard line against Serbia, the other powers in Europe took sides. The wheels of war gained speed. The stakes far outgrew the squabble between Austria and Serbia. The Crisis of July turned into world war, just over thirty days after Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot.

MS Biography of Colonel Dimitrijvic , the mastermind. Biography of Franz Ferdinand , the slain Archduke. Biography of Sophie , Franz Ferdinand's wife. Biography of General Potoirek, Governor of Sarajevo. Biography of Princip , the gunman. Biography of Cabrinovic , the bomber. Biography of Grabez , the third Belgrade man. Biography of Ilic , the assassin who talked. Biography of Cubrilovic , a young assassin. Biography of Popovic , the other young assassin. Biography of Mehmedbasic , the Muslim who got away. Bibliography Sarajevo: the story of a political murder, by Joachim Remak, 1959. Origins of World War I: 1871-1914, by Joachim Remak, 1967. American Heritage History of World War I, by S.L.A. Marshall, 1982. Black Hand Over Europe, by Henri Pozzi, 1935.

Question: In which capital city did the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand trigger World War I?
Answer: Sarajevo